A column of current statistics selected especially for Christian communicators
Average number of years in one job, for barbers: 25
Elementary school teachers: 13
Accountants: 8
Pastors: 7
Waiters/Waitresses: 4
Percentage of Americans who believe the church has influenced society in a positive way: 85
Percentage who believe computers and technology have: 87
Number of products in today’s typical supermarket: 30,000
In 1976: 9,000
Items in today’s average produce section: 285
In 1975: 65
Number of mutual funds currently operating: 3,347
In 1980: 564
On average, number of TV channels available to today’s household: 30
In 1975: 6
During the past decade, number of periodicals formed daily: 1
Number of religious denominations currently being formed weekly: 1
Percentage of men who have felt in touch with someone who was dead: 21
Percentage of women: 24
Percentage of U.S. population that is a member of a Christian church: 54.8
In 1970: 60.0
Increase in number of churches since 1950: 50,500
U.S. 1991 state and federal prison population: 823,414
Percentage increase since 1980: 150
Prisoners convicted of drug charges: 1 in 3
In 1981: 1 in 13
When You’ve Hit Midlife
The American Board of Family Practice asked 1,200 Americans how they would define middle age. Here are some results: 41 percent think you’re middle aged when you worry about having enough money for all your health concerns; 42 percent say middle age comes when the last of your children moves out; and 46 percent say middle age means no longer recognizing the music groups on the radio.
– Reported in Newsweek, 12/7/92
What Work Will Buy
Consumer Reports compared costs of certain items in terms of time worked to earn them. The results are sometimes unexpected. To pay one’s income taxes, for example, a person had to work an average of 50 days in 1962. In 1992, taxes required 49 days of work. A television set has decreased in cost by 4 times what it was 30 years ago. Long-distance telephone calls have decreased by 15 times. The cost of apples has increased, however, as has the cost for a hospital delivery of a child (15.5 days then, 62.2 days now) and the cost of attending a private college (129.5 days then, 251.4 days now).
– Reported in Context, 10/15/92
Faulty Picture
Don’t bother adjusting your TV. The problem seems to be the images piped out of Hollywood. That’s the conclusion made by a study of 104 leading television writers and executives. Conducted by the Center for Media and Public Affairs, the study found that Hollywood’s views run far from the mainstream of public opinion. Some examples:
Though 85 percent of Americans believe adultery is wrong, only 49 percent Of TV writers and executives do.
The country disapproves of homosexual acts nearly four times as much as Hollywood (76 to 20 percent).
Everyone else is less likely than Hollywood to say a woman has a right to an abortion (59 to 97 percent).
While only 4 percent of Americans have no religious affiliation, 45 percent of the TV writers and executives have none.
– Reported in Newsweek, 7/20/92
SOURCES-Job length: Ministry Currents, 7-9/92 and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Earnings, 10/88. Positive influence: Religious News Service in Pentecostal Evangel, 9/27/92. Supermarkets and other changes: Steven Waldman in The New Republic, 1/27/92. Periodicals: Steven Waldman in The New Republic, 1/27/92. Denominations: Steven Waldman in The New Republic, 1/27/92. In touch with dead: Psychology Today, 5-6/92. Church membership: USA Today, 12/14/92. Church increase: USA Today, 12/14/92. Prisoners and drugs: USA Today, 5/29-31/92.
Copyright © 1993 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
